Color changing illuminated fountain



Nov. 14,1961 I 1 c. BENAK 3,008,646

COLOR CHANGING ILLUMINATED FOUNTAIN Filed May 31, 1960 1 Fcwz C. BEN/7M 1 VENTOR.

United States Patent 3,008,646 COLOR CHANGING ILLUMINATED FOUNTAIN Frank C. Benak, Arcadia, Calif., assignor to Lighting Specialties, Inc., a corporation of California Filed May 31, 1960, Ser. No. 32,937 Claims. (Cl. 23920) This invention relates to ornamental fountains and particularly to such fountains which are illuminated with colored light.

It is a particular object of the present invention to provide such a fountain which is adaptable for use on a table and which may be inexpensively manufactured of molded plastic parts so that it can be shipped disassembled in the form of a kit and readily assembled and satisfactorily operated by the purchaser without the use of any tools.

It is another object of the invention to provide such a fountain which includes an electric motor driven centrifugal pump which embodies a simple and inexpensive fluid drive for multi-color light filter so that the color of the light with which the fountain is illuminated changes at regular intervals.

It is a further object of the invention to provide such a fountain in which the speed at which the'color filter a plastic base 11 having a frusto-conical side wall 12 g "ice 27 is a hole 33 which connects the hole 22 with the intake passage 31. Formed in the block 19 on the vertical axis of the fountain 10 so as to communicate between the hole 21 and the bore 24 in a tangential relation with the impeller 32 is a hole 34.

The wall 25 has a bore 25a which is concentric with the bearing 28 and provides a bearing for a shaft 35 on which is mounted a cylindrical color filter drum 36. Mounted on the inner end of shaft 35 within the bore 24 is a fluid driven element 37 having vanes 38 which lie in the same radial plane with fluid drive vanes 39 formed on impeller 32 so that rotation of the latter imparts torque to the element 37 when these two parts are submerged in a liquid.

The drum 36 is formed of four differently colored quarter-cylindrical segments 40, and an electric lamp 41 issupported therein by a metal arm 42 which fastens to the motor 30, this lamp having a reflector hood 43 which confines the light of the lamp 41 and directs this upwardly through the most upwardly disposed color segment 40 of the drum 36. The block 19 is also provided with a vertical hole 44 which is aligned with the hole 23 in the bottom 15 of cup 14 and connects with bore 25a in which the shaft 35 journals. A plastic slug 45 is slidable in the hole 44 and bears against the shaft 35. A very light spring 46 is disposed in hole 24 just above slug 45 and is confined in said hole by an adjustable screw 47 which screws through the threads providedin tapped hole 23 whereby rotation of the screw 47 adjusts the pressure applied by spring 46 on slug 45, and the pressure thus brought to bear on shaft 35 regulates the rate of rotation of the color filter drumj36 responsive to torque transmitted thereto through the torque element 37.

' tight fit with the socket cup 20 when pressed thereinto.

wardly in eccentric relation with the cup 14 is a pump k unit mounting socket cup 16 having a slightly tapered opening 17 into which a correspondingly tapered plug 18 formed-on theupper end of a cubical power unit block 19 pressurally fits so as to mount said block 19 on the eccentrically relative to the center thereof, are holes 22 i and 23 the latter of which is tapped. V

Theportion of FIG. 1 located above the broken line L is'in a vertical plane containing the axis of the fountain l0 and the sectional portion of FIG. 1 below line L is in'a vertical plane located towards the observer from the axis of the fountain, this plane being approximately tangent with thenear portion of the socket cup 20.

The power unit block 19 has a horizontal bore 24 leav ing a vertical wall 25 at its blind end and having a counterbore 26 in its mouth portion. Fitting with a pressed fit into the mouth portion of the bore 24 and into the counterbore 26 is a plastic plug 27 which provides a central bearing 28 for a motor shaft 29 of an electric motor 30. Formed in the inner end of the plug 27 surrounding the bearing 28 is an annular water inlet passage-31. The motor 30 is secured to the plug 27 so as to be supported on the block 19. Fixed on the inner end of the motor shaft 29 is a pump impeller 32 having pumping vanes 32a. Formed in the block 19 and plug Bowl 50 has a downwardly extending pipe 53 which is tapered and makes a tight fit with the upper end of pipe 52 when pressed downwardly thereinto.

When the motor 30 is energized while a body of water 55 is confined within the bowl 48, the impeller 32 is rapidly rotated in a clockwise direction (looking at the shaft 29 from the left end of FIG. 1) which sucks water inwardly through the intake passage 31 into the central portion of the impeller 32 and discharges this water upwardly through the holes 34 and 21 into the pipes 52 and 53 and the nozzle 54 so that the water is expelled upwardly in a column of water 56 which fills the bowl 50 to the point where it overflows therefrom through a suitable number of spouts 60 into the bowl 49 and from the latter through a suitable number of spouts 61 provided thereon into the bowl48:

The lamp 41 is included in the electric circuit with .,,the motor 30 and thus is illuminated a-tall times while the fountain 10 is operating. The pressure applied by the screw 47 onto the shaft 35 is regulated so as to retard the rate of rotation of this shaft caused by the fluid drive I connection between the impeller 32 and the driven rotor element'37-so that the color filter drum 36 only rotates at a rate of about once each minute. Assuming that there A nozzle 54 makes a tight fit with the upper end of pipe 53 when pressed thereinto.

creased or decreased as desired, the precise rate above suggested being merely illustrative.

The upper Wall 13 of the base 11 as Well as each of the bowls 48, 49 and Share made of transparent plastic so that the colored light emitted upwardly from the filter drum 36 passes through these transparent parts and illuminates the fountain. The side wall 12 of the base 11 may be made of opaque plastic or only slightly translucent and ornamentally colored so as to hide the working mechanism of the fountain mounted therein.

The pressed fits above described are made possible by the very low tolerances with which the parts of the fountain may be manufactured out of hard plastic and these fits make watertight connections between the parts so assembled. The press fit between the plug 27 and the bore 24 and counterbore 26 also snugly retains this plug against rotation in the block 1? so as to maintain the portions of the hole 33 in the block 19 and in the plug 27 in alignment with each other. In a similar manner the friction set up between the plug 18 and the tapered opening 17 of the socket cup 16 is adequate to permanently unite the block 19 with the cup 16 and support said block and the elements mounted thereon, on the fountain base 11 as shown in FIG. 1.

While only a single embodiment of the invention is shown and described herein, this disclosure is for illustrative purposes only and it is to be understood that various modifications and changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

The claims are:

1. In an illuminated fountain, the combination of: a I

centrifugal pump having a rotary impeller for producing a circulation of Water in said fountain; a rotary multicolor filler mounted in coaxial relation with said impeller; a lamp mounted to emit light through said filter to illuminate said fountain with light of different colors as said filter rotates; and fluid drive means through which rotary motion is transmitted fro-m said impeller to said filter, said means including a fluid driven element coaxially connected with said filter and enclosed in the same chamber with said impeller.

2. In a fountain, the combination of: means forming a basin for holding water, said means including a bottom wall; a block, having a blind bore formed therein on a horizontal axis and a plug extending into and closing the mouth of said bore; means for securing said block pressed tightly upwardly against said bottom Wall; a motor having a shaft and mounted on said plug, the latter providing a bearing for receiving the motor shaft; a pump impeller fixed on the inner end of said shaft, said bore providing a pump chamber for said impeller, there being a liquid inlet in said plug surrounding said bearing, said inlet being connected by aligned holes in said plug, said block and said Wall with the water in said basin, there being a liquid discharge passage formed in said block connecting tangentially with said chamber and extending upwardly to connect with a second =hole provided in said bottom wall; and means connecting with said second hole to conduct water therefrom to a level above the Water in said basin and discharge the same to permit it to gravitate back into said basin.

3. A combination as in claim 1 in which a socket is formed downwardly from said bottom wall which socket the upper end of said block is shaped to frictionally fit to hold said block in assembled relation with said wall as aforesaid.

4. A combination as in claim 1 in which said basin forming means includes a plastic base which surrounds and supports said bottom wall and cooperates with the latter to form an upwardly opening basin socket, and a basin forming bowl having a central downwardly opening neck which frictionally fits said basin socket to form a liquidtight seal therewith.

5. A combination as in claim 1 in which said water conducting means includes a central socket formed on said bottom Wall and surrounding said central hole and opening upwardly, and tubular means fitting downwardly into said central socket to provide a hollow central water conducting column thus mounted on said bottom wall.

6. A combination as in claim 1 in which a multicolored cylindrical light filter is providedhaving a shaft; a bearing provided in said block at the blind end of said bore said bearing being coaxial with said motor shaft bearing and receiving said filter shaft; a fluid driven element fixed on the inner end of said filter shaft and within said chamber in closely spaced relation with said pump impeller so that said filter is fluid driven by rotation of said impeller; and a lamp emitting light upwardly through said filter to illuminate said fountain successively with differently colored light.

7. A combination as in claim 6 having means for frictionally retarding rotation of said filter by applying a controlled degree of pressure to said filter shaft.

8. In combination: a centrifugal pump having a stationary body providing a pump chamber with co-axial bearings communicating with opposite ends of said chamher; a drive shaft journalling in one of said bearings; a driven shaft journalling in the other of said bearings; a pump impeller mounted on said drive shaft; and a react'fiigrotor mounted on said driven shaft, there being formed in said body liquid inlet passage means for admitting liquid into said chamber adjacent the bearing for said drive shaft, and liquid discharge passage means located in the radial plane of said impeller for discharging liquid tangentially outwardly from the periphery of said impeller and out of said chamber, said rotor reacting to the rotation of liquid in said pump chamber to cause rotation of said driven shaft.

9. A combination as in claim 8 including a fountain bowl for containing liquid and having a translucent bottom on the lower face of which said pump body is mounted; a motor for driving said drive shaft; a multi-colored filter mounted on said driven shaft; a lamp emitting light upwardly through said filter and said bowl bottom; and tubular means for conducting liquid from said pump to an elevated level for gravitation downwardly into said bowl, the bottom of said bowl being provided with passage means connecting the interior of said bowl with said inlet passage means, and passage means connecting said tubular means with said discharge passage means, rotation of said filter with said driven shaft causing successive changes in the color with which said bowl is illuminated by said lamp.

10. In an illuminated fountain, the combination of: a pump having a rotary impeller for producing a circulation of water in said fountain; a stationary body providing a chamber in which said impeller rotates, there being inlet and discharge passages admitting water to and conducting pumped water from said chamber, a swirl being imparted to the Water in said chamber by said impeller; a rotary multi-color filter mounted in co-axial relation with said impeller, said filter having a fluid driven'element disposed in said chamber and engaged by said swirling water whereby the latter slowly rotates said filter; and a lamp mounted to emit light through an eccentric portion of said filter thereby illuminating said fountain with light of different colors as said filter rotates.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,128,828 Klepper Aug. 30, 1938 2,379,015 Lysholm June 26, 1945 2,888,205 Trucco May 26. 1,959

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATION OF CORRECTION Patent N0 3 008 646 November 14,, 1961 Frank C. Benak It is hereby certified that error eppears in the above numbered patent requiring correction and that the said Letters Patent should read as corrected below.

Column 3 line 35 for "filler" read filter same column 3 lines 63 and 68 column 4 lines 3 and 9 for the claim reference numeral "1" each occurrence read 2 e Signed and sealed this 10th day of April 1962.,

(SEAL) Attest:

ERNEST W. SWIDER DAVID L. LADD Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

